8 Things You Learn Re-Watching The First WWE Elimination Chamber Match

5. The Chamber Broke Early

Then-World Heavyweight Champion Triple H and Rob Van Dam started the match off, and the bout settled into a very easy rhythm. It was clear that none of the competitors were particularly comfortable within the unfamiliar and legitimately painful structure, and that the match was going to rely on a lot of gimmickry and no small amount of blood.

Triple H, who was looking particularly inflated at this time, was the first to feel the force of the chainlink that made up the walls of the Chamber. Rob Van Dam whipped The Game into the fence continually in the early going, providing an early test for the sturdiness of the chamber.

It failed the test. After one whip too many Triple H busted out of the cage, only to drag himself back in at the last moment. It was noticeable that from this point on the wrestlers were whipped into the joint as opposed to the chain itself.

The pods themselves didn’t stand up to any scrutiny either. Both announcers and Eric Bischoff went to great lengths to tell the viewer how the glass was bulletproof, only for two men to be thrown through them during the match. An argument can be made for Chris Jericho going through his, as Y2J was hurled headfirst into the material by Kane. Shawn Michaels also went through the glass later in the match, but he did so following a particularly laboured slingshot from Triple H.

Needless to say, the Elimination Chamber itself would be strengthened as the years went by.